Reservation for urban local bodies in Andhra Pradesh ahead of polls finalised

Ahead of the local body elections, the State government finalised the reservation for the posts of mayors and members of municipal corporations on Saturday.

Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation

VIJAYAWADA: Ahead of the local body elections, the State government finalised the reservation for the posts of mayors and members of municipal corporations on Saturday. Women and Backward Classes were given top priority with the former getting 50 per cent and the latter getting about a third of the total posts.

As per the gazette notification issued by the Municipal Administration and Urban Development Department, eight of the 16 mayor posts were reserved for women.

Of the eight, five were reserved for general category, two for BCs and one each for SC/ST category. Overall, BCs were given five mayor posts, two for SCs, one for ST, and five each under unreserved and general (women) categories.

Even though reservation for corporations was notified, polls will be held in 12 of them, including Vizianagaram, Kadapa, Kurnool, Visakhapatnam, Machilipatnam, Eluru, Vijayawada, Tirupati, Anantapur and Guntur. Elections will not be held in Nellore, Srikakulam and Rajamahendravaram municipal corporations due to pending court cases, while elections to Kakinada corporation were held in 2017.

Similarly, of the total 671 corporator (corporation members) posts across the 12 corporations, 50 per cent were reserved for women. Of the total 336 posts reserved for women, 37 were under SC category, 106 under BC category and 193 under general women. Of the remaining, 12 were earmarked for STs, 77 for SCs, 222 for BCs and 167 under unreserved category. The municipal elections will be held in a single phase on March 23 and counting of votes will be taken up on March 27.

Reservation for mayors (municipal corporations)